Gauntlet101010 wrote:I can understand why the western fandom rejected the tenuous connections such as they are. If the official dub omitted them and since the show does introduce continuity problems other media had to tidy up ... yeah. I can see why. We didn't even get to have "head on" so of course we wouldn't pick up on that. In addition it didn't have to be a direct tie in - it could just be a reference. A nod.
Granted, like I said, the majority of western fans never actually watched Car Robots at the time since it wasn't fully available in subtitled form back then (the complete fansubs didn't get made until 2014).
And I think the dubbers didn't catch those references either because Saban Entertainment (the dubbing company in question) wasn't all that familiar with the Transformers brand in general. They had a Hasbro employee working closely with them as a creative consultant, and the only voice actor on the dub team who had worked on Transformers before was Michael McConnohie (who had voiced Tracks and Cosmos in the G1 cartoon). Saban was chosen to dub the series because they were readily available at the time, having already established a good relationship with Fox Kids (the network that Beast Machines had aired on) and had the dubbing experience at the time with Power Rangers, Digimon, and DinoZaurs (pretty much the entire dub voice cast had worked on at least one of those shows). Hasbro needed to put something out for 2001 real quick after the cancelation of Transtech left them with no new series for 2001, and also because the decision to co-produce Armada with Takara left Hasbro with no new series until 2002. They needed something to fill in that void with a new cartoon very quickly, and Saban was very good at doing dubs quickly.
Though, that isn't to say Saban did a rushed job with the dub. Rather, despite some numerous inconsistencies that were common to Saban's dubbing productions in general, they gave a good effort in voice acting and trying to make sense of Car Robots's more zanier moments for the RID dub. Not to mention all the
extra scrambling they had to do in the wake of the sudden spike in network censorship brought about the 9/11 tragedy, which forced Saban to tone down some of the more violent and destructive moments of the show at the 11th hour, even after the dub had already started airing. Three episodes even got banned from U.S. broadcast completely. It was a very hectic time.
Gauntlet101010 wrote:It is what it is, but that doesn't mean I think it was a good idea for them to follow through on tying it all in It seems to have only complicated things and added nothing. And a team of time police is actually a pretty cool concept. They just left it lying on the ground.
Yeah, there could have been more done with it in further animation. But Car Robots apparently flopped in Japan. RID was a smash success in the west, but CR basically put Transformers animation into a coma over in Japan. From 2000 to 2003, there was no Transformers cartoon airing on TV in Japan. Car Robots ended at the end of 2000, while Armada (or "Legends of the Microns") didn't begin airing in Japan until early 2003. Transformers was essentially dead during that interim, getting by only on some smaller lines of mostly G1 reissues before Armada revitalized it three years later.
Alas, the only follow-up to the Dimensional Patrol concept Japan received was some small continuation stories in the Legends manga, wherein it was shown that G1 Skids of all characters had joined the team, and surprisingly so too did Gigatron and the other four Destrongers.
During his time of incarceration, Gigatron witnessed the emergence of some new threats much greater than himself, which made him finally realize just how much of a small fish in a large pond he truly was. Having been so humbled by his ultimate defeat and capture by Fire Convoy's team (his greatest failure), the mere existence of these even larger threats humbled him even further, to the point where Gigatron finally came to his senses and realized how foolish he had been in his attempts to conquer fate itself.
The first toy catalog I mentioned before that said the Car Robots cast had been time travelers from the future had also said that Fire Convoy and Gigatron used to be childhood friends long ago, so that also played a part in Gigatron eventually turning over a new leaf and joining his once and former enemy as his once again old friend.
Of course, as seen in the pic above, Black Convoy was utterly appalled by this and both he and the other Combatrons refused to join Fire Convoy's team, wanting to stay evil.
And at the very end of Legends, we see the awesome ultimate realization of Devil Gigatron's redemption:
Devil God Fire Convoy! 
Yes, the toys can do this, too.
(not my pics, btw)
